Does industry competition affect firms’ ESG performance

Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) has received much attention in recent years, and the operation of enterprises has also changed from the early pursuit of maximizing shareholder benefits, and further needs to incorporate the well-being of all stakeholders, even the environment and the community, into the sustainable development plan of the enterprise. However, ESG investment will inevitably increase the cost of enterprises, and extending from the current discussion of related issues affecting corporate investment in ESG, we examine ESG performance of companies at different competition levels. Based on a total of 11,265 annual data from 2015 to 2021 and relatively complete and comparative ESG evaluations, the empirical results reveal that there is a significant inverse relationship between the degree of competition in the industry and the ESG performance of the companies, which is reflected in both the samples of enterprises and industries. Further analysis from environmental, social and governance perspectives shows that the inverse relationship also has significant differences in the level, revealing that the impact on different markets may not be the same. This research provides important additional details for regulators, firms, and investors to better understand the ESG performance among firms in different industries.